Formerly Known as Claire
by Carol
Summary: Claire's thoughts the night before her first day as Darien's Keeper


Formerly Known as Claire

Formerly Known as Claire

By Carol M.

Summary: Claire's thoughts the night before she goes to work at the Agency

Spoilers: Impetus, Brother's Keeper

Rating: G

Disclaimer: Don't own them, just live vicariously through them

Author's Note: I needed a little break from writing Devil's Silver #7 and another little D/C shippy fic, so I came up with this. It's very short with no real D/C shippiness, although the possibility is always there. Hope you enjoy!

Claire, or the Keeper as she would officially be known as starting tomorrow, sat nervously on her couch, petting her dog Pavlov. She absently chewed on a red piece of licorice as she worked her hands through the dog's soft fur.

Tomorrow was the big day. Tomorrow she would start work at the Department of Fish and Game, the Agency. She hated the first day of a new job. A mixture of extreme fear and extreme excitement. She could do without both. Claire liked knowing exactly how her day was going to play out, down to the minute. With this new job, however, a schedule was probably not going to be applicable.

She glanced at the folder sitting on her coffee table. Project Quicksilver read the tab. She scooted Pavlov off her lap and reached for the folder for the hundredth time that day. She flipped to the first page and saw the picture of Kevin Fawkes. Her heart did small somersaults. He had only been dead for a month and the wounds were still healing. Sure they hadn't seen one another in years, but she still had feelings for him.

She flipped to the next page and saw a picture of her future kept one, Darien Fawkes. To Claire, he looked like he was from a different planet then his brother. For Kevin's gleam of idealism, Darien gleamed mischief. For Kevin's neatly trimmed hair, Darien's was wild and tousled. But they both had the eyes. Those deep chocolate eyes that told every thought that was coursing through their brains.

But of course tomorrow she wouldn't be seeing Darien's brown eyes. No, tomorrow she would be seeing red ones. That would be interesting. Oh bloody hell, it would be downright scary. He would be a psychotic killer when he first met her. Not an easy way to make a new friend.

Claire shook her head. No, no, no, there would be no making friends with Darien Fawkes. She was to be his doctor and nothing more. She would not care about him. She would not care about Kevin's brother, damn it!

She would make sure that he understood. She was not his friend. She was his Keeper and nothing more. She would put on a mask and not let him see who she really was. She would manipulate him from the start and try to get him to trust her. It was for his own good, he would come to see that. She was only going to be doing the job she had been hired to do. Claire couldn't help it if it was unpleasant for him. At least now, maybe she could help fix her mistake with Gloria.

She would never screw up like that again. She would keep Darien safe, sane and healthy. She would give him his shots and make sure the gland was functioning properly. He would come to depend on her. He would come to respect her.

Sure tomorrow was going to be painful for both of them. She would tranq him and then put him in the padded room. She would have him begging for his sanity, and she would bring him sweet relief. She could do this, she really could. She could wear the mask, she could be cold and uncaring, she could be the Keeper. She was no longer a person, she was a title. She hoped he wouldn't get through to her. She hoped he couldn't penetrate her steel.

Nope, no, she was going to be strong. She was going to resist the constant begging for counteragent that somehow she just knew he would excel at. He would pull out all the stops. He would use those eyes against her. Kevin's eyes.

God, she didn't want to do this. Not to Kevin's brother. She didn't want to deny him. She didn't want to patch up his bloody wounds that she knew he would get in the field. She didn't want to have to deal with a man who would be psychotic one minute and remorseful the next minute. It was all in the file, she knew how he got after the madness. He didn't want to hurt anybody.

It really wasn't fair. The man had gotten stuck with a gland that he didn't ask for and she had accepted the responsibility of picking up those pieces. And picking up those pieces was not going to be pleasant for her or for Darien. But sometimes to help someone you have to hurt them. She guessed in the coming months, she would become an expert at that. She just hoped that in the end, she really could help him, whether he ended up hating her for it or not.

She flipped to Kevin's picture again, caressing it with her finger. "I'll do my best, Kevin, I'll do my best," she whispered.

That's All Folks!


End file.
